King Kong Premiere

King Kong has already had its worldwide premiere, but it also had a pretty big red carpet premiere in Wellington yesterday.  The entire movie was shot in and around Wellington – even the shots of New York City are actually the Hutt Valley.  Because it is such a local movie, Peter Jackson made sure to have a big Wellington premiere.  I have never seen a premiere before (nothing premieres in Atlanta, only New York), so I had to go and check it out.  Neither did I have time to camp out all day nor was I too excited about the actual stars, but I did want to see the crowds and the red carpet.  Claudia felt the same way, so we headed down to Courtenay Place around 5.30.

There had been entertainments such as singers and dancers since 3.30, and the New Zealand celebrities were set to arrive at 5.30, followed by the cast stars at 6, so Claudia and I weren’t expecting to be able to see anything after getting there so late.  The streets had been closed since the night before, and a couple of diehards had even camped out overnight.  Recently, the winds have for some unknown reason died down in Wellington, so the temperatures keep rising, and it legitimately feels like summer now.  I think the warm temperatures encouraged the outdoor sleepover.  By the time we arrived, the streets were packed.  People were climbing trees, hanging over balconies, everything.  I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the world premiere of The Return of the King.  I hadn’t seen anything like this since the Lions test match in Wellington back when I first arrived.

Claudia and I made our way through the crowds down the street, trying to catch a glimpse of the red carpet through stacks of people 4 rows thick, until we got all the way down to the Embassy Theatre where the movie was being shown.  (As a side note, this wasn’t the actual premiere.  It was shown at 12.01AM that morning all around the country.  For some reason, the official premiere was at 7PM.  Who knows?)  There was a small stage set up for speeches, lots of TV newscasters around keeping their eyes on the people walking by, and some grandstands set up behind the stage for ticketed guests.  We found our way to the barrier behind the stands because there was a money view of the theatre entrance and it was in the shade (sort of).  It was also not very crowded for some reason.  We decided to hang out here for awhile so we could see the stars as they entered the theatre.

This was the best decision of the day because we happened to be standing next to what may be the nicest, coolest security guard ever.  After being there for about 15 minutes or so (it could be longer, I have a poor sense of time), he came up to me and asked if it was “just the two of us,” meaning me and Claudia.  I said yes, of course, and then he said that there were two seats available at the front of the stands and would we like them?  Shocked, we made our way through the barrier and right onto the front row.  It was so cool!  The stage where the speeches were made was only about 6 feet from me, and all of the stars (minus Naomi Watts) in attendance made their way over to sign autographs.  I got to meet Karl Urban (Eomer in the Lord of the Rings trilogy), Jamie Bell (Jimmy), Andy Serkis (King Kong in King Kong and Gollum/Smeagol in The Lord of the Rings), Adrien Brody (Jack Driscoll, and also the star of The Pianist), and Colin Hanks (Preston), among other people.  I must also mention my prime view of Dan Carter as he walked down the red carpet.  (Dan Carter is the All Blacks rugby player with whom I am most obsessed.)  I got to see the Wellington mayor make her speech, as well as Trevor Mallard, the Economic Development Minister.  And, of course, Peter Jackson!  I got to see Naomi Watts up on the stage as well, so that is OK even though she didn’t come over to sign autographs.  The cool thing about her was that she was taking pictures with her digital camera the whole time, holding it up to take pictures of her co-stars and Peter Jackson as well as the crowd.

After everyone had gone inside who was allowed to go inside, Claudia and I hung around the take some more pictures of the grandstands, red carpet, and theatre.  This meant we were around when the guards started the take down process, and I jumped in to get an official King Kong sign that had been hanging in front of the grandstands.  It’s really cool, but we don’t know where we are going to put it yet.  We’re still looking for a prime place in the flat.

So, that is my first red carpet experience.  They were doing pick-up filming in Wellington when I first arrived, so I am happy I was still here for the premiere.  I originally wasn’t going to see the film, but after knowing that it was filmed entirely in Wellington and that it has been getting amazing reviews, I think I may make it down to the theatre and catch a showing.  I do hope that my next red carpet experience involves me actually going INSIDE to the premiere after walking down the red carpet, but we’ll see how that works out.  I just have to figure out how to be important enough to be invited to one of these things.  You can send all suggestions to me at my gmail account, thanks.  (